Preaching with our Lives

Praedicare is a blog about the many ways Dominicans preach with their lives, written by Adrian Dominican Sister Mary Jones, OP, who serves as the Congregation’s Promoter of Preaching. Please click the “Subscribe” button on the right column if you would like to receive it by email.

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O God, our loving God, where are you?
We have been driven from our homes,driven from our lands.
And where shall we go?
Who will welcome us?
Who will love us?

Aleppo no longer wants us.
And she buses us to the other side of her city.
We suffer, waiting,
waiting while the powerful fight for our homes,and while no one else wants us.

Mosul lies in rubble.
Can we claim her rocks and stones as ours?
The once beautiful ancient churches wherewe prayed begging your loving care.
We suffer, waiting,
waiting as ISIS battles other believerslaying waste to our lives and our homeland.

How long, O God, how long?

Standing Rock,
yes, you do stand as a symbol,
a symbol of the lands that were once ours,
the lands out of which we were driven,
driven into boundary reserves so that the powerfulcould claim these lands as their own.
We suffer, waiting,
waiting for those in charge to know their greedand grant us our natural rights.

Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras,beautiful jewels of the South.
We no longer feel safe in you, our lands.
Our lives are in jeopardy, stolen from us by the greedy.
Our families are separated, kidnapped, killed.
Where can we go? Who will welcome us?
We suffer, waiting,
waiting while the wealthy take our lives, our moneyand leave us poor without sustenance.
Oh God, where are you?

“No wonder the prophet weeps yet—
We begin again but not innocent…

And we feebly watch for you and wait.
Teach us how to weep while we wait,and how to hope while we weep,and how to care while we hope.”

~ From “Teach Us How To Weep” in Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

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